Life Change: Reinvent Yourself This Year

When Dorothy Martin-Neville talks about life change, she knows whereof she speaks. She's been reinventing herself pretty much since birth. Born out of wedlock, she was sent to an orphanage, then grew up in the projects in South Boston. "Expectations for me were slim," she says, ticking them off. "That I would graduate high school, get married and produce grandchildren."

Leading a Fearless Life of Change After Change

Martin-Neville did eventually get married and have two children. But first she began blazing her own path. "In high school, I was asked to talk about Martin Luther King. That was the moment I realized I had something to say and could make a difference." Martin-Neville wanted to be a social worker, but her father didn't believe in educating girls. She became a nun, and as a Good Shepherd sister, she was able to begin her studies. "Like Maria in The Sound of Music, I was always getting called into the mother superior's office, so the lay life was better for me." Martin-Neville left the convent.

She had a brother teaching in Zambia, a sister with a leather shop in Barcelona and another brother on a kibbutz in Israel. She became a TWA flight attendant so she could visit everybody.

After that came marriage and children, and if your head isn't spinning yet, she went to graduate school while raising them so she could become a psychotherapist. She joined a group practice with one of her professors, then later started her own practice, doubling her income in a year.

After attending a workshop on energy medicine, she began to study and get certification in modalities such as reflexology, breath work and iridology.

Life Change Lessons From a Serial Reinventer

Martin-Neville believes her tough start in life gives her an advantage: "Many of us in orphanages know from the first that we're on our own. So we become pioneers, people willing to step out of the crowd. It's not hard. We didn't have a crowd to begin with." Martin-Neville now works as a speaker, teacher, psychotherapist and healer. Here's her advice for following your dreams.

"I believe we all know what our dream is, but we don't always listen to it. That's because we've gotten the message not to rock the boat. I got the message I could never leave the projects. Once I realized that was wrong, nothing could stop me.

"Take time to be in the quiet. To stop and reflect. What makes you want to get up in the morning? What makes you come alive? When you discover what that is, you have something that calls you.

"When people tell me they have no idea what their dream is, I ask them, 'If you were to have a dream what would it be?' It's a simple trick that works.

"The next question is, What do you need to do to make that happen? What's stopping you. What belief system in you tells you you can't achieve your dream.

"You have to be able to envision what you want and you have to be willing to take a risk. The worst that can happen is nothing. Every time you take a risk, you end up with far more of you than you had before."